Up to the end of the 18th century the Bank House site was the site of a chapel dedicated to the Virgin, where, upon its demolition, the Peebles Silver Arrow was found bricked up in a wall. Several Scottish burghs offered a silver arrow as a prize for archery in the days when firearms were coming more and more into use. It is assumed that the Peebles arrow had been hidden before religious troubles in Scotland in 1675, so had been "lost" for over a century. The arrow was a trophy competed for particularly by members of the Royal Archers, and once again is competed for at Peebles.
So, here is how Bank House looked before 1975, with that beautiful Italianate tower and its "red door" surrounded by ivy. The four windows to the right of the tower are what remains today, with the old bank just out of the picture, so just over half the house has been demolished to allow the bridge around the corner to be widened. It
had to be widened to accommodate the traffic using it, but what a shame the most attractive part of the house had to be sacrificed.
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Thanks fot looking at my photos of Peebles. It is great to read your comments, so thanks for writing!